Deaths Rise On Beach Shortcuts, But Road Officials See No Quick Cure

DELAND — The death toll is climbing on a couple of two-lane roads used as shortcuts to beaches in Volusia and Brevard counties, but officials say there is little they can do to make the roads safer.

A bloody head-on collision last month on State Road 415 in southwest Volusia County killed a Deltona man and put the number of deaths on that road at 11 since January. Back-to-back accidents on State Road 520 in Orange and Brevard counties this month pushed the death count on that road to eight since January.

S.R. 415 leads from Seminole County through Volusia and empties at Daytona Beach. Many residents use it as a back road to and from the shore. S.R. 520 winds its way from east Orange through Brevard to Cocoa and other beaches. It is used as an alternative route as well.

The state Department of Transportation, which considers factors such as accident rates and length of road to calculate road safety, said both S.R. 415 and S.R. 520 are safe. Motorists are causing the problems, officials said.

''You can't engineer to keep people from making mistakes,'' DOT spokesman Steve Homan said. ''It's not the problem of the road; it's the problem of the driver.''

On two-lane roads, drivers become impatient when stuck behind a slow-moving car or truck, DOT officials said. They often become so impatient that they will cross the solid yellow lines to pass in areas where the speed limit is 55 mph.

When that happens, the results can be deadly, as statistics on S.R. 415 show. Of the 81 traffic deaths in Volusia this year, 11 of them, or 13.5 percent, occurred on S.R. 415.

The deaths on S.R. 415 occurred in five accidents, the worst of which took place on June 19. In that crash, rescue workers had to cut people out of the mangled remains of their cars. Five of the nine people involved died.

''This year has been wild for the number of fatalities that we've had,'' said Capt. Henry Gilmore, who is in charge of Volusia County Fire Station 36 in Osteen. ''I mean, you ride up and down the road, and there are crosses all up and down 415 from people who know people who have died.''

The state does not have enough money to widen every two-lane highway in Florida to four lanes, Homan said, so it must decide which roads need attention most and try to find alternatives to rebuilding. On S.R. 520, the DOT plans to put in a single passing lane in a 1 1/2 -mile stretch in Brevard near the Orange County line. It also plans to widen two segments of the road to four lanes near the Bee Line Expressway in Orange County.

It is hoped that this will reduce drivers' frustration and allow them to safely pass slower-moving traffic. Although plans for passing lanes have been in the works for S.R. 520 since 1989, the same treatment would not work on S.R. 415, said DOT Director of Safety Bill Linkovich.

''It would not be appropriate for 415 because we've got a lot of driveways on 415. People speed up when there are passing lanes,'' Linkovich said. ''I would strongly recommend against them on 415.''

Linkovich said that sometimes roads have a high number of crashes one year and then few or none in following years. According to DOT statistics, three people died on the 17-mile stretch of road in 1989, one in 1990, none in 1991 and two in 1992 - far below the number of deaths so far this year.

Linkovich said he saw a similar occurrence on a section of Interstate 75 in Sumter County. A state task force was formed to study a section of the road when 11 people died there in six months. Linkovich said no causes could be found. That was four years ago, and no one has died on that stretch since, he said.

Homan said S.R. 415 recently was widened, and 4-foot shoulders were added to allow slower vehicles to pull to the side.

Gilmore said his department is considering some road improvements of its own.

''We've got an association here at the station, and we're seriously considering paying for a sign and putting it up ourselves,'' Gilmore said.

It would read, ''Slow down and live to get to the other end of this road.''